Method of making paper bag



March 26, 1963 Filed March 1, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 0L IQ I INVENTOR.

MANUEL F. FORTE BY ATTORNEYS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS March 26, 1963 M. F. FORTE METHOD OF MAKING PAPER BAG Filed March 1, 1961 4 m R 6 m m 1 WP F m L //.mL W m a nx F QANH iM/ a M United States Patent 3,082,717 METHOD OF MAKING PAPER BAG Manuel F. Forte, 652 N. Main St., Acushnet, Mass. Filed Mar. 1, 1961, Ser. No. 92,494 3 Claims. (Cl. 112-10) This invention relates to a new and improved machine and method for making a paper bag and particularly an insulated or cushion type of paper bag. For purposes of mailing articles such as books or the like, it has become very popular to utilize a paper bag which is provided with cushioned walls. Effectively, the walls of such a bag are padded by having made integral therewith some cushioning material. Bags of this nature are very successful in preventing damage to the contents thereof while being handled in the mails and provide a very convenient and inexpensive mailing container that can afterwards be thrown away. Specifically, the bag which is the prodnot of the instant invention is of a flat envelope type which can be readily stacked with other similar bags and does not take up the space that more rigid mailing containers would take.

in manufacturing bags of this general description, it is obvious that two layers of outer paper must be utilized with some insulation therebetween. It will be apparent that, when this is done, a raw edge will be left which may be an edge that is presented to the person using the bag at the opening thereof. Generally this raw edge con struction cannot be avoided since the bags of the prior art with which I am familiar cement together the two layers of paper that are utilized and thus some cement is bound to appear at the edge. I i

It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide an insulated or cushioned bag envelope construction which does not present a raw edge to the user thereof at the entrance pocket.

It is another object of the invention to construct a heat insulating or cushion envelope in a manner whereby a flap is automatically produced.

A further object of the invention is to construct a heat insulating or cushioned envelope type of bag in a continuous operation.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a detached schematic elevational view of method of making an improved mailing bag or cushioned envelope;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view partially broken away showing the method of creasing the paper wrapping around the cushioning material;

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of the continuous paper as it passes the glueing station; I

FIGURE 4 is a view of the partially completed bag as it passes out of the cutting station;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of a completed bag; and

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken on line 6-6 of FIGURE 5.

In proceeding with this invention, I provide a mailing envelope comprising spaced opposed walls of packaging material that are fastened together in edge zones to form a commodity receiving compartment therebetween and a mouth for said compartment between the opposed walls wherein both of the walls include two layers of packaging material with cushioning material therebetween, the layers of packaging material being secured together along marginal edges and one of the opposed walls having one dimension greater than the corresponding dimension of ice the other opposed wall so that a sealing lip is formed for folding over the mouth.

Referring now to FIGURES 5 and 6 of the drawing, there is illustrated a mailing envelope consisting of two strips of packaging material 10 and 11, both of which are folded intermediate their ends as at 12 and 13 respectively. The end portions of both of the strips are juxtaposed to form a single edge as at 14, and intermediate the folded layers It} and 11, there is positioned a cushioning material 15 which may be cotton wadding or any other suitable thick sheet-like material that has cushioning and insulating qualities. The layer of packaging material 10 is longer than the layer 11 so that in effect a flap generally indicated as at 16 is formed, and as particularly shown in FIGURE 5 this flap 16 may have placed on one surface thereof a layer of adhesive 17. The edges 14 of the two layers 10 and 11 of packaging material are stitched together by a line of stitching 18 together with an edge loop stitch 19. Similarly the two adjoining edges are stitched together by lines of stitching 20 and edge stitching 21. it will be seen, therefore, that the layer of packaging material 10 with its cushioning material 15 forms a complete wall which will be termed A while the layer of packaging material 11 with its cushioning material 15 therebetween forms a second wall which will be termed B. With the end and longitudinal marginal portions fastened together, a commodity receiving compartment is formed between the walls A and B with a mouth as at C. With this construction it will be seen that the folded edge portions 12 and 13 are relatively thick so that they may be readily separated for the commodity to enter at the mouth C and the edges will be relatively stiif and strong so as to resist tearing or collapse and will present a clean edge to the user thereof without any possibility of contact with the cushioning or filling material. 1

Packaging material which is intended to be used here is kraft paper or the like, and the cushioning or insulating material that is preferred to be used is cotton wadding. In manufacturing the mailing envelope of this invention, two rolls of cotton wadding 3-0 and 31 are received on rotatable supports 32, 33. Also two rolls of kraft paper 34, 35 are received on rotatable supports 36, 37 respectively, which are positioned immediately adjacent the rolls of wadding 36 and 31. The wadding is guided over the rolls 34 and 35 by suitable means such as sheet metal guards 38, 39 and emerges as two webs 4i? and 41. The kraft paper emerges as two sheets 42, 43 and both the web 4%, 41 and the kraft paper sheets 42, 43 pass on to guide rollers 44, 45 which may be more than one roller, although for simplicity sake only one has been shown. At this point the wadding 4t and 41 lies on top of the kraft paper 42, 43. The material thus oriented is then passed on down successively between a number of edge guides such as 46, 46 and 47, 47' which tend to bring in the edges of the kraft paper and start a folding operation until the paper reaches a final creasing and folding station as at 56.

The upper half of station 59 is shown more particularly in FIGURE 2 where the kraft paper 42 that was initially disposed in a horizontal plane has its edges brought upwardly by the successive stations of edge guides to assume a vertical plane doubled upon itself as at 51. Creasing is effected along the doubled edge 51 by a creaser bar 52 that forces the folded edge 5-1 of the paper to a V-shaped roller 53. The creaser bar 52 is provided with a guide arm 54 extending upwardly at an acute angle therefrom and immediately adjacent the creaser bar is a loop 55 through which the wadding sheet 46 is guided. The wadding sheet 40 first passes between the creaser arm 52 and the arm 54 and thence into the loop 55 which maintains it in the proper attitude as it passes on between a final pair of vertical bars 58 which are closely spaced together in order to form the final crease in the paper. It will of course be understood that an identical structure creases the paper 43.

From this point, the two sets of folded paper are turned to assume a horizontal attitude and both layers are turned in the same direction so that the folded edge portion of one set appears adjacent the folded portion of the other set. Also the free edges of the two folded sheets are oriented so that they in effect will appear one above the other as they pass into a final creaser and orienting station 60. Up to this point several factors should be kept in mind. First, in order to produce the mailing envelope that has been briefly discussed above, a width of the strips passing on down through the line must vary. To this end, therefore, the width of the kraft paper on roll 31 is slightly wider than that appearing on roll 30 by the extent of the flap that is desired. Thus, if a two-inch sealing flap is desired, the difference in width between the two sheets of kraft paper will be four inches. Similarly the width of the wadding rolls 30 and 31 will vary and preferably the wadding width is equal to one-half of the kraft paper width. Thus, the wadding on roll 30 will be half the width of the kraft paper on roll 34, and similarly the wadding on roll 31 will be half the width of the kraft paper on roll 35.

Turning now to the final smoothing and creasing station 60, a first pair of guide roll 61 and 62 tend to orient the folded paper sets onto flat tables 63 and 64, respectively, which may be provided with edge guide bars that will give vertical alignment to the one edge of the folded sheets, and at this position, over the tables 63 and 64, smoothing of the two layers may be insured by suitable means and/or inspection and are passed out into a loop as at 70. The two layers are then picked up over a pair of tables 71 and 72 by a common feed roll 73 and fed into a stitching position 75 where a sewing machine 76 places a single stitch 18 and a loop stitch 19 along the juxtapositioned open edges or non-folded edges of the two sheets fastening them together. The loop at 70 is necessary in order to take up any errors that might occur in the feeding to the sewing machine station and/r breakdowns that might occur, such as breakages of needles or thread, and permits stopping of the entire feeding ap paratus without tearing the packaging layers or the filling therebetween. The two layers, now stitched together in a form such as shown in FIGURE 3, are passed on to a glueing station as at 80 in which a usual glueing machine having a glue-applying roller aflixes glue to the free flap of the lower folded layer A which is indicated by the stippling at FIGURE 3.

After the glue has been dried in suitable drying apparatus well known in the art, the material passes down over roller 81 into a loop formation as at 82 and thence up over an arcuate guideway 83 to a cutting station as at 84. The cutting station 84 consists of a support table 85 with hold down and feed rollers 86, 87 to maintain the layers against the table. To achieve cutting, a reciprocating knife arrangement 88 i provided, and this knife may take a variety of forms in addition to a pure reciprocating knife, such as a swinging knife mounted on the end of a lever arm. The operation at this particular station is as follows: The layers are advanced over the guide 83 by power being applied to the rollers 86 and 87. When the layers come up against an abutment 89, sensing means at this location arrests the feeding and initiates knife action. As soon as the knife action has been completed, the feed roller 87 is actuated and delivers the cut piece onto the back of the table as at where they may pass into a receiving box such as 92, the operation repeating again with new stock being advanced.

It will be realized that the bag at this point assumes the configuration as shown in FIGURE 4, the width dimension being controlled of course by the location of the sensing and stopping means 89 relative to the knife 81. This, of course, may be varied at will to suit any customers desires. From this point the cut material may be manually carried to a sewing station 94 to apply stitching 20 and loop edge stitching 21. Alternately, automatic means may be utilized to transfer the cut layers from the table at 90 to a stitching station located at right angles thereto where two sewing machines will apply the necessary stitching 20 and 21 at either edge of the bag automatically. The bag in this condition is now ready for use, and, if necessary, certain printing indicia may be placed thereon, either after the bag is finished or during the processing thereof, as necessity dictates.

I claim:

1. A machine for making mailing bags comprising means for feeding a pair of layers of Wall material, means for advancing said layers in a horizontal plane, means for doubling each wall layer longitudinally of itself and transposing the same from a horizontal to a vertical plane, means for transposing the vertically oriented wall layers to a horizontal plane, means positioning the folded edges of each wall layer in spaced relationship, means for stitching said wall layers together at the free longitudinal edges, thereof, means for advancing said wall layers to a cutting station, said cutting station having a knife means including intermittently operable feed means for advancing the wall layers to said knife means and means for feeding successive cut bag members from the knife means to a stitching station for stitching the out side edges thereof.

2. A machine as in claim 1 wherein means are provided to apply adhesive to the wider wall layer at the overhanging flap portion thereof.

3. A machine as in claim 1 including means for feeding a layer of cushioning material between each doubled wall layer while the wall layers are in a vertical plane.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,528,499 Molfatt Mar. 3, 1925 1,884,032 Maier Oct. 25, 1932 1,888,949 Henares Nov. 22, 1932 2,374,128 Pinckert Apr. 17, 1945 2,380,914 Billeb Aug. 7, 1945 2,381,850 Williams Aug. 7, 1945 2,431,888 Pick Dec. 2, 1947 2,521,187 Robinson Sept. 5, 1950 2,667,132 Golden Jan. 26, 1954 

1. A MACHINE FOR MAKING MAILING BAGS COMPRISING MEANS FOR FEEDING A PAIR OF LAYERS OF WALL MATERIAL, MEANS FOR ADVANCING SAID LAYERS IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE, MEANS FOR DOUBLING EACH WALL LAYER LONGITUDINALLY OF ITSELF AND TRANSPOSING THE SAME FROM A HORIZONTAL TO A VERTICAL PLANE, MEANS FOR TRANSPOSING THE VERTICALLY ORIENTED WALL LAYERS TO A HORIZONTAL PLANE, MEANS POSITIONING THE FOLDED EDGES OF EACH WALL LAYER IN SPACED RELATIONSHIP, MEANS FOR STITCHING SAID WALL LAYERS TOGETHER AT THE FREE LONGITUDINAL EDGES, THEREOF, MEANS FOR ADVANCING SAID WALL LAYERS TO A CUTTING STATION, SAID CUTTING STATION HAVING A KNIFE MEANS INCLUDING INTERMITTENTLY OPERABLE FEED MEANS FOR ADVANCING THE WALL LAYERS TO SAID KNIFE MEANS AND MEANS FOR FEEDING SUCCESSIVE CUT BAG MEMBERS FROM THE KNIFE MEANS TO A STITCHING STATION FOR STITCHING THE CUT SIDE EDGES THEREOF. 